Her Game Too

Matt Riley

Description

Her Game Too is a call to arms for women to be given equal access to profile, opportunities and advancement in the beautiful game. Since the sport's early days, women have been excluded from football, with those brave enough to participate, either as fans or players, beset by misogynistic attitudes if not outright abuse. While we've seen great strides made in the battle for respect and inclusion, sadly there's still a long way to go. Matt Riley provides a platform for key voices in the movement, galvanised around HerGameToo, an organisation run by female fans to fight sexism in football. We hear from the HerGameToo founders who were name-dropped in the House of Commons, Helen Nkwocha, the first woman to coach a top-flight men's team in Europe, and HerGameToo director Natalie Atkinson among others. The book explores the roots of the movement with the story of pioneering female footballer Lily Parr, and sheds light on the future, which has looked increasingly bright since Premier League side Everton pledged its support to HerGameToo.

Informations

• Publié par: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• Date de parution: 24 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781801503518
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Matt Riley, 2022
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Print ISBN 9781801502085
eBook ISBN 9781801503518
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Contents
Foreword by Tracey Crouch MP
Preface
About the Author
1. The Euros. Don t Watch Women s Football
2. Happy Birthday Her Game Too!
3. The Big Bang Moment
4. In Conversation with Her Game Too Founders Caz and Lucy
5. Born Out of Time: The Ballad of Lily Parr
6. In Conversation with Her Game Too Director and Advisor Natalie Atkinson
7. Breaching the Grass Ceiling. The Power of Pathfinders
8. Innovation. Exeter City s Her Game Too Weekend
9. The Power of Education
10. How the Crouch Report Supports Her Game Too
11. Why Football Should Remain a Male-Only Sport
12. The Power of Parity. Lewes FC
13. Our Manifesto: Awareness
14. The Power of Partnership
15. Short Story: A Game of Two Halfwits
16. The Power of Purpose
17. Short Story: Bringing Out the Best in Men
18. The Power of Opportunity
19. A Woman s Place is in the Home Dressing Rooms
20. The Future s So Bright We Gotta Wear Shades
Acknowledgements
The Her Game Too Survey
Photos
For Karen.
Nothing else matters
Foreword by Tracey Crouch MP
PROUDLY REPRESENTING Chatham and Aylesford as their MP, and as author of November 2021 s Fan-Led Review of Football Governance, I am delighted to endorse Her Game Too: A Manifesto for Change . As the book describes, the women s game is at a crossroads after experiencing huge growth, and needs to face some legacy issues that must be addressed urgently. As we wait for a separate review into women s football to fully consider the issues at play, this book will help keep the momentum going for the huge strides that have been made in the women s game since the dark days of 1921 when women s football was banned.
Campaigning groups like Her Game Too and Women in Football have helped drive the development of the women s game, while addressing some of the misogynistic and blinkered attitudes to women playing, commentating on, following, officiating, coaching and administering the beautiful game. Thankfully, groups like these and the majority of fans have pushed these attitudes into the margins and have helped inspire a new generation of girls and women to take up footballing careers across a widening range of roles.
I grew up in the eighties when it wasn t the done thing for girls to play football. I was constantly being stopped from playing in the playground at primary school and then I went to an all-girls school where it was an option for PE. I doubt there were any local girls teams but because there was no coverage of women s football, I didn t even know to look for them. It wasn t until I got to university that I played my first game of competitive football. Switching from playing to coaching at the age of 30 enabled me to give something back to the game, staying with the same girls team in Chatham from under-10s to ladies. I could never quite help myself, though, and regularly reminded them how lucky they were to live in a time and a country where girls could play football.
As I shared with the Digital Culture Media and Sport Committee on 7 December 2021, I played football with girls in Saudi Arabia and engaged with their sports minister. It was heartening to see a picture in The Times of a Saudi female national player showing her skills in their national stadium. Football has a massive part to play in promoting human rights globally. I was humbled to captain the parliamentary team against the Afghan Women s Development team in March 2022. These were girls who needed to be rescued from the Taliban simply because they played sport. Football is an international language and these girls, most of them just in their teens, were fluent.
When collecting evidence for my report, it was clear that many fans, both male and female, wanted the women s game to avoid the mistakes being made in the men s. That is why we need a manifesto for change. A clear pathway to watching, supporting and running football that is sustainable, equitable, empowering and collaborative.
Her Game Too: A Manifesto for Change explores a values-based approach that promotes fairness and integrity not only between the men s and women s game, but within the women s game itself. There are, as I noted in my review, signs of overheating at some top WSL clubs in a league celebrating its first decade this year and which has been fully professional since the 2018/19 season. I heard a lot of evidence of concern that the gap between the top of the game and the FA National Women s League was growing, but there is also great determination to keep the women s game equitable. The book calls for an open and transparent approach to the women s game. This is also an area they can learn from reviewing the mistakes often made in the men s game, where certain practices have helped circumvent protective measures such as Financial Fair Play and profitability and sustainability rules. The negative consequences of the Elite Player Performance Plan being put together for lower league men s clubs are another learning point that the women s game can consider.
Other appalling omissions can be addressed immediately. When Sam Kerr barged over a pitch invader in December 2021 during Chelsea Women s Champions League tie against Juventus, she was given a yellow card and he was not arrested. The reason? Under section four of the 1991 Football (Offences) Act, it is an arrestable offence to go onto the playing area. The law states: It is an offence for a person at a designated football match to go onto the playing area, or any area adjacent to the playing area to which spectators are not generally admitted, without lawful authority or lawful excuse (which shall be for him to prove). A person guilty of this offence is liable to a fine of up to 1,000.
However, this legislation only applies to designated matches and Women s Champions League and Women s Super League games are not considered to be in that category. According to the Football (Offences) (Designation of Football Matches) Order 2004, a designated match is a game in which one or both of the teams represents a club which is a member of the English Football League, the Premier League, the Football Conference or the League of Wales, or represents a country or territory . This list excludes women s games and is something that, by the time this book is released, will surely be a loophole that is consigned to history.
As the men s game continues to feel the repercussions of Project Big Picture and the European Super League, the women s game has a fantastic opportunity to foster the unique selling point of a community-focussed and inclusive ethos for all levels of the game. One of the chapters in this book highlights the Her Game Too weekend at Exeter City last season, where the whole club celebrated the women s game during 48 hours of shared values. The Exeter City Women s game attracted more fans than Chelsea Women would see that week for a Champions League game, showing the huge benefits of a one-club approach. City also beat local rivals Plymouth Argyle on penalties, so sales of Thatchers cider performed very healthily after the game, I hear!
As the book looks back on a decade since the appalling comments made by Richard Keys and Andy Gray, we must inspire and promote positively rather than (understandably) berate and criticise the behaviour of the game s often male, pale and stale custodians that have consistently failed to show respect or support for women trying to make their way in the game. There are historical role models like Lily Parr, contemporary ones like Jacqui Oatley, Ellen White and Susan Whelan, and a growing movement to make women s football a powerful force for good in sport and a beacon for fairness in wider society. That is why I believe the separate review of women s football will give focus and foster growth.
Her Game Too: A Manifesto for Change will raise awareness and funds for the Exeter City Women s team. I am delighted to help support it.
The Euros: See It and Be It
Before we start, let s take a moment to pause, draw breath and shout out our proudest, loudest Lioness roar. Wow! Just. Absolutely. Wow! The last time England lifted a trophy women were banned from even playing but this group of affable, relatable and highly skilled players have blazed trails that will be followed for generations to come. Matt goes into more detail about this seminal moment for women s football, but I just wanted to add my thanks to the volunteers, coaches, fans, support staff and players that have battled long odds for generations and laid the foundations for a golden future for the game. This is your time and you have put a spring in the step of a nation. Here to play and here to stay.
Writing in November 2021, University of Madrid Professor Celia Valiente produced a study of Spanish football that also raised important global issues. Called, Sport Mega-Events and the Search for Gender Equality it sees tournaments like the Euros as strong dr